The Drop - review

The Drop might be a tough, gritty crime thriller about the employees of a Brooklyn bar used as a "drop" by gangsters, but it features one of the most adorable onscreen couples this year.

No, not James Gandolfini and a meatball sub... Talking about Tom Hardy and the baby pit bull Rocco!

Tom Hardy's quiet and soft spoken barman Bob Saginowski might be the one who finds the puppy beaten and abandoned in Noomi Rapace's trash can but he might be the animal who needs saving in this story adapted and expanded from a short story from Dennis Lehane.

Bob works for his Cousin Marv in his bar, which is now owned by Chechen gangsters, which is the target for a robbery which brings them unwanted attention from the owners and the police. He also catches the eye of unhinged local criminal Eric Deeds (Matthieu Schoenaerts) who claims to be Rapace's ex-boyfriend and the owner of the dog.

This unwanted scrutiny threatens to provide the spark to a powder keg situation and unlock secrets that everyone is keeping close to their chests.

The tension is slowly ratcheted up to a climax that will change the fates of all involved.

This was Gandolfini's final screen role and showcases him at his Sopranos-best but this is Hardy's film. His performance is fantastic, although quiet and brooding, there is always the idea that his bite might be worse than his bite and he has nice chemistry with Gandolfini, Rapace and, of course, Rocco.

In terms of story and performances, The Drop is the dog's bollocks.

4 stars

The Skeleton Twins - review

The Skeleton Twins Milo is very much Bill Hader's Little Miss Sunshine role, similar to Steve Carell (at that point best known for his comedic roles) playing against type as a gay man attempting suicide following a break up who reconnects with his family, in this case his sister Maggie (Kristen Wiig) after being apart for ten years. Proving blood is indeed thicker than water, particularly when it is spilt.

As the two siblings reconnect, it is clear that it isn't just Milo who has problems, as Maggie inwardly struggles with her marriage to Luke Wilson (who is played as a sweet, lovable doofus but completely committed to her).

The reason behind the distance between them is never really discussed and while both of them have their own secrets, the script does a fine job of building the characters with just a look or line of dialogue without the over reliance of expository dumping.

Thanks to working together for years on Saturday Night Live, Hader and Wiig have terrific chemistry and really give the impression that their twins and have that real connection, demonstrated perfectly in the fantastic scene where Milo tries to cheer up Maggie by lipsyncing to Starship's Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now, a moment that could have been incredibly cheesy but manages to come across as heartfelt and uplifting.

Despite having two strong comedic performers, this is not the laugh-out-loud comedy many might expect and instead is a dark family drama with bittersweet comedic moments to cut through the pain. Comedy and tragedy working seamlessly together. Like Joss Whedon said "I like to hire comedic actors for dramatic parts because comedy is the hard one".

The Skeleton Twins succeeds thanks to two strong central performances that flesh out these two characters, making them relatable and empathetic.

3 stars

Say When - review

Directed by Mumblecore director Lynn Shelton, Say When has desires of achieving a Garden State-esque meditation on the struggles of someone in their mid-twenties finally leaving the past behind and figuring out who they are and what they want out of life.

In this case, it is Megan (Keira Knightley) who is floating through life without a job or career, still with the same group of friends she has had since high school but feeling like an outsider as she hasn't really grown up. When her high school boyfriend proposes, she freaks out and runs off for a week, pretending to be at a career seminar, but actually hangs out with teenager Annika (Moretz) and bonds with her single dad played by Sam Rockwell.

Rockwell adds some much needed spark to a tale that kind of shuffles and mopes along like a sulky, lethargic teenager and instead of becoming a thoughtful take on the "quarter-life crisis", it descends into standard rom-com cliches and formulas come the predictable finale.

2 stars

Interstellar - review

With 2010's Inception Christopher Nolan explored the inner mind. With Interstellar, Nolan has decided to "dream a little bigger darling" and has set his sights on outer space to deliver a grand, awe-inspiring, wondrous 2014 A Space Odyssey.

The McConaissance goes out of this world as Cooper, a former pilot/engineer who now makes his living as a farmer on an Earth that is dying. He is given the chance to lead a mission to search for inhabitable planets beyond our solar system using Interstellar travel.

This leads to the central crux of Interstellar. Humanity versus the human race.

Several times Cooper is reminded of the sacrifices he must make to complete the mission:

"I've got kids, professor.
Then get out there and save them. We must reach far beyond our own lifespans. We must think not as individuals but as a species."

"You might have to decide between seeing your children again and the future of the human race."

On the one hand you have a mission to save the human race, on the other it is boiled down to our humanity and own individual survival instinct and Cooper's will to keep his promise to see his children again.

The awful truth of what this will take is demonstrated following a message from home after a visit to one of the new planet's surface.

To go into the plot and science in any more detail would do the movie a disservice and also possibly require a PHD as there is so much more to this film than the trailers have given away.

This is the type of film where plot and dialogue can take a back seat in the space shuttle as you strap in for the audio visual experience that Nolan, Zimmer and cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema have dreamed up (sometimes literally as there are times when Hans Zimmer's booming score overpowers the dialogue).

It also wears its influences on its sleeves like a host of NASA mission patches, with the biggest patch belonging to Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Not only are there certain themes and plot similarities between them but also the A.I. robot companions resemble the black monoliths plus both films reliance on practical effects in filming that ground them in reality whilst simultaneously taking us to galaxies and universes we could only dream of.

It is said that Man's reach exceeds his grasp but when that man is Christopher Nolan and he is reaching for the stars, the result is still an extremely powerful, moving, exhilarating cinematic experience.

4 stars

The Necessary Death Of Charlie Countryman - review

The Necessary Death Of Charlie Countryman is another in a long line of fantasist stories of "An American Abroad" where, as the femme fatale herself puts it, "you have a fantasy of about helping a woman in a faraway land", as Shia Labeouf (who between this and Fury looks like he hasn't washed in two years) plays a young man visiting Europe and through a chance encounter meets a beautiful girl, gets involved with vicious criminals, partying all night with drugs, drinking, naked women, an Inbetweener and Ron Weasley, cultural stereotypes, yada, yada, yada.

As an outsider's view of Europe it is perhaps only just more palatable and slightly less painful to watch than Hostel.

2 stars

Ouija - review

Imagine the disappointment when it turns out that this movie is not about a groups of teenagers who summon an angry, drunken Glaswegian when they play a board game on Halloween.

Instead Ouija is a bland, tired, generic story about a group of friends who unleash a vengeful spirit in a house with a mysterious background who torments them with loud bursts of music when people and/or things look in mirrors or pop up out of nowhere.

Ouija is advertised as being "based on the Hasbro board game" but the only word that is relevant out of that sentence is "board" which is what audiences will be by this insipid horror.

1 star

Mr. Turner - review

Going in to Mr. Turner, expectations were high. Everyone was talking about this seeing this "masterpiece".

Coming out, it felt like I had looked at the Mona Lisa and just seen a painting of a woman with a funny smile.

Art is subjective and so is the criticism. Where some see amazing works of art, others see splodges of paint.

Where some see a "masterclass" in Timothy Spall's portrayal of JMW Turner, I see a man lumbering around like Toad Of Toad Hall, issuing more grunts than the US Marine Corps.

It is undeniable that the film, like Turner's paintings, is beautiful to look at (although perhaps not during the scene where Spall is seen rutting away with his housekeeper up against a bookcase), but may simply be a case that I just don't "get it".

3 stars